Devas and men differ
in appearance. For one thing devas are more fluidic — capable of far
greater expansion and contraction. Secondly, they have a certain
fiery quality which is clearly distinguishable from that of any
ordinary human being. The only kind of human being with whom it might
be possible to confound them would be the highly-developed — an
arhat*, for ...
* Arhat — one who has passed the fourth initiation,
the one preceeding adeptship. Editor.
example, who had a large and well-arranged aura; but even
then one who had seen both would not be likely to mistake them. The
aura of the ordinary man is capable of a certain amount of temporary
expansion. It has a definite size, which is the same as that of a
section of the causal body, and as the causal body grows, that
section becomes larger, and the man has a larger aura; but such
increase comes only gradually.
If you
remember the plates in Man
Visible and Invisible, you will
recollect that the ordinary man, as far as the causal body is
concerned, is far from being fully developed. When you look at the
causal body of the developed man, you will see that it is full of
color, so the first stages of improvement in the case of the
ordinary man consists in its filling up, not its enlargement. He must
get the ovoid filled with different colors, and then expansion
begins.
If any sudden rush of feeling comes over the ordinary
man, it shows itself, as depicted in the book, by the flashing in the
aura, and out from it, of the color of the quality expressed — rose
for affection, blue for devotion or green for sympathy; and also in
the pulsating bands of that color, and in the general
intensification of everything connected with that emotion. It does
not do more than that for the ordinary man; an exceedingly vivid rush
of affection, for example, fills the aura with rose and sends out
thought-forms of that color in the direction of its object; but it
does not usually appreciably increase, even temporarily, the size of
the aura.
The developed man, however, has already filled the
causal body with color, so in his case the effect produced by such a
rush of affection or devotion or sympathy is not only to suffuse the
body with color and cause a great outrush of thought-forms, but also
to produce a considerable temporary expansion, though the aura
afterwards contracts to its normal size. Each such outrush of feeling
makes the aura permanently just a little larger than before. The more
it increases, the more power the man has to feel. Intellectual
development also increases the aura, but in that case yellow is the
predominant color.
Remember that utterly unselfish affection
or devotion belongs not to the astral but to the buddhic plane, and
that is why when a wave of such feeling rushes over a man it causes
great
...
- 332 -
temporary expansion of his aura; yet it never increases to the
same tremendous extent as with a deva. The fluctuations in the aura
of a deva are so great as to be startling to those who are not used
to them. One who recently did us the honor to pay us a visit at
Adyar, to give us information about the foundation of the sixth
root-race, had normally an aura of about one hundred and fifty yards
in diameter; but when he became interested in the teaching which he
was giving to us, that aura increased until it reached the sea, which
is about a mile away from us.
No human being could feel
sufficient emotion to produce such an increase as this. Even in the
case of a Master the proportionate temporary enlargement would never
be so great. I do not mean anything derogatory to the deva, when I
say that the Master is steadier, and that the permanent growth of His
aura would be as great as that of the deva, but the temporary
expansion less in proportion. The texture of the deva's aura is, as
it were, looser. The same extent of aura in a human being contains
more matter, because it is more condensed or concentrated. The deva
in question was no further advanced than an arhat, whose aura might
probably extend a third of the distance. But it might easily happen
that a clairvoyant who had not seen either before might realise only
that he was surrounded by a cloud of glory in either case, and he
probably would not know the difference.
Expansion and growth
take place in the astral and mental bodies as well as in the causal.
These three bodies are all of the same extent, although you must
remember one is dealing with only sections, and even sections of
sections. There used to be a theory afloat that the causal body of
the ordinary was about the size of a pea, and that it gradually
increased; but that is not correct. The undeveloped causal body is
the same size as any other, until the expansion begins.
As I
have said, the aura of a deva has fiery characteristics which are not
easy to describe, though very readily recognisable. All of the
colors are more fluidic, and of the nature of flame rather than of
cloud. A man looks like an exceedingly brilliant, yet delicate cloud
of glowing gas, but a deva looks like a mass of fire.
The human
form inside the aura of a deva is very much less defined than in a
man. He lives more in the circumference, more all over his aura than
a man does. Ninety-nine per cent of
...
- 333 -
the matter of a man’s aura is
within the periphery of the physical body, but the proportion is far
less in the case of a deva. Devas usually appear as human beings of
gigantic size. Somebody has suggested that there are devas who look
as though they were feathered. There is some justification for this
idea; I know exactly the appearance that that man was trying to
describe, but it is not easy to put it into words. The great green
devas whom I saw in Ireland have a very striking appearance, being
enormous in size and most majestic. One cannot describe them
accurately; in words it is only possible to approximate. The painters
usually represent angels with wings and feathers, but I think where
these are mentioned in the Christian scriptures they are always
symbolical, for when real angels appear they are sometimes mistaken
for human beings (as by Abraham, for example); so obviously they
could not have had wings.
In many cases a deva may be
distinguished by the form which he happens to be taking inside his
ovoid. It is nearly always a human form. You remember that
nature-spirits take human form almost invariably, but with a
peculiarity of some sort — always a little odd. I should be disposed
to say the same of the devas; but it would be wrong to think of their
forms as in any way distorted, for they have a great dignity and
majesty.
The devas produce thought-forms as we do, but theirs
are not usually so concrete as ours until they reach a high level.
They have a wide generalising nature, and are constantly making
gorgeous plans. They have a color-language, which is probably not as
definite as our speech, though in certain ways it may express more.
As regards the size of the aura, that of an ordinary man extends
about eighteen inches on each side of the body. If
he puts his elbow against his side and stretches out his arm and
hand, his finger-tips will be near the circumference. The average
Theosophist may be a trifle larger than the quite uninterested
person; but there are fine, large auras outside the Society as well.
Intense feeling means a larger aura.
We may have a distortion
of the aura — it may be a little out of shape. As I have explained
before, most people have the small end of the egg upwards, but we who
are students tend to grow larger at the top, because the
characteristics which we are developing express themselves in matter
which naturally floats in the upper part of the aura because of its
specific gravity.
- 334 -
The increased size of the aura is a prerequisite
for initiation, and the qualifications should be visible in it. The
aura of a Buddha is said in the books to be three miles in radius; at
one stage below his, I have myself seen one which extends about two
miles. It naturally increases with each initiation.
The devas
do not come along our line of development, and do not take such
initiations as we do, for the two kingdoms converge at a point higher
than the adept. There are ways in which a man can enter the deva
evolution, even at our own stage, or lower.
You ask if the
devas are often near at hand and willing to teach men. They are
usually quite willing to expound and exemplify subjects along their
own line to any human being who is sufficiently developed to
appreciate them. Much instruction is being given in this way; but
most people have not prepared themselves for it yet, and so are
unable to profit by it. We know nothing of any rule or limit for the
work of the devas; they have more lines of activity than we can
imagine.
There are usually plenty of them here at Adyar*. We
have many great advantages here, where the Masters come so
frequently. In order to see them, all that is required is a little
clairvoyance at the right moment. There is a stimulus from these
Beings, which some feel in one way and some in others. Perhaps in the
earlier incarnation of the Lord Gautama as the first Zoroaster, the
fire which is one of the signs of his development may have been one
of the reasons why He was mistaken for a deva. It is said that during
meditation flames leapt from the aura of the Lord Buddha; but we must
remember that an ordinary thought-form would often appear flame-like
to a person who was not used to such things. The shining of the
Christ at the transfiguration is a similar case.
There are
plenty of glorious influences all around us here, but their effect
upon each one of us can be in proportion to his receptivity. We can
take from all this just what we make ourselves fit to take, and no
more. A person who is thinking of himself all the while may bathe in
this glowing magnetism for a year, and not be one iota the better for
it. He may even be the worse; for these tremendously strong
vibrations tend to intensify a man’s qualities, and sometimes the
undesirable are strengthened as well as the desirable; or he may be
altogether upset, and become unbalanced and hysterical. To a man who
is ...
* Adyar, India — The location of the
international head offices of the Theosophical Society. Editor.
- 335 -
wise enough to take it, a stay at Adyar is an opportunity such as
few men have ever had during history; but what we make of it depends
entirely upon ourselves.
The Spirit of a Tree
The spirit of a great tree,
such as a banyan, not infrequently externalises itself, and when it
does so it usually takes on a gigantic human form. I have noticed one
near here, for example, whose form is about twelve feet high, and
looked like a woman the last time I saw it. Its features were quite
clear, but its form was misty. There are also nature-spirits which
cling round a tree, and do not at all like to be disturbed. I have
heard it said that nature-spirits do not cling round the trees which
man fells for timber; but such observations as I have been able to
make do not bear out this contention, and it seems to me that it must
have been invented by men who wished to destroy the tree without
feeling any unpleasant twinges of conscience.
Although it takes
so fine a form, the spirit of a tree is not individualised, nor even
within measurable distance of individualisation. Nevertheless, it is
already much higher than the lower forms of animal life, and when it
passes into the animal kingdom it will come straight into some of the
mammalian groups. It has its likes and dislikes, and these show in
its aura, though the color and definition are naturally altogether
vaguer and dimmer than in the case of an animal. Indeed, in animals
who glow with affection its color is often remarkably strong;
stronger in the case of some animals than that which is shown by some
human beings, because it is so much more concentrated and
one-pointed.
The strong attraction which some people feel for
particular kinds of trees or animals depends often upon the line of
animal and vegetable evolution through which those people have
risen.
- 336 -
